


What's Past Is Prologue

by persephx



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (one of them), (the other), :), Alternate Universe, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Feels, Gay Bucky Barnes, Genius Tony Stark, M/M, Modern Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier feels, aaaaaaaaaand i can't think of any more tags, everyone likes au!bucky, so ws!bucky feels rejected, there are two bucky barnes, there's not really agnst but there's comfort i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-13 14:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16020239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephx/pseuds/persephx
Summary: “The past is never where you think you left it.”― Katherine Anne PorterBucky Barnes wasn't doing great, but at least he was now in a place where he could admit it. He was doing better. He had Steve and he had the Avengers, even if he wasn't always good company. He finally felt like there was somewhere he could fit. Until someone had to ruin it. And apparently, that someone had to be himself, from another universe, who was everything Steve wanted him to be.OrAlternate Universe Bucky appears in the Avenger's living room and they have to find a way to get him home. Steve feels melancholic about the past and Bucky feels rejected.





	What's Past Is Prologue

It hadn’t been an exciting day, really, no emergencies, no disasters, nothing, not even something to watch on the TV. Basically, it had been boring. Clint was actually whining about that when suddenly a bright light filled the whole room. Steve could hear someone gasp in surprise, and another person yelp, and he hoped Bruce hadn’t been so startled that he hulked out in the middle of the living room. Just as that thought was dying in his head, the light became more bearable until it disappeared, leaving a confused man in the middle of the room. Instinctively, Steve reached for the knife he knew Bucky had hid underneath the coffee table and pointed at the man, but he almost let it drop. The man before him was Bucky.

It wasn’t the Bucky that had been in the facility this whole time, up in his room, probably cleaning his weapons or just using whatever excuse to hide from the Avengers. It was the Bucky from before. He had short hair and the tiniest shadow of a stubble. His eyes were bright and confused, maybe even scared, but they were far from the calculating glint he always found in them nowadays.

Bucky’s eyes were roaming the room, jumping from a place to another until they settled in Steve. He visibly shagged. “Steve,” he said, practically a whisper.

And then, he dropped.

The real Bucky chose that exact moment to walk into the room, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. First, he looked at Steve, gave him one glance to make sure he wasn’t hurt, and then he scanned the rest of the room. When he saw the unconscious man in the floor, he walked towards him slowly.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice rough for not having used it today.

The only thing that met him was silence. Steve couldn’t stop looking at Bucky, the unconscious one, his mind trying to explain what had happened. First a bright light, then a happy Bucky. One that apparently knew him, too. Was this another Hydra stunt? It was cruel, Steve thought, but if this was Hydra, being cruel was what they intended.

When conscious Bucky reached unconscious Bucky, he faltered in his steps. Steve turned to him and saw the tiniest expressions of shock. He wondered how that would feel, to see himself from the outside. It had to be confusing at least. In another time – actually, the time from where unconscious Bucky came – Steve would have put his hand in Bucky’s shoulder, but he didn’t react well to physical contact most of the time nowadays.

“What happened,” Bucky asked again.

He looked at Steve and, in that moment, Steve hated not being able to give him an answer. “I’m not sure,” he said, slowly. “There was a bright light and then…” he made a vague sign to gesture towards the man in the floor. “I don’t know what happened.”

“Hydra?” Bucky asked, moving his eyes to where his own body was lying.

“Could be.”

“Should we… take him to the infirmary or something?” Steve heard Clint suggest. He nodded, stepping ahead and picking Bucky up. Only after he realized that if this was indeed Hydra, he should be more careful.

He looked at Bucky, his Bucky, who was narrowing his eyes at Steve, and he shrugged a bit. “You want to come?” Steve guessed he’d like to know all about this person if he was in Bucky’s situation and suddenly a copy of himself appeared without apparent reason.

His best friend nodded mutedly, leading the way towards the infirmary, while the Avengers stayed behind.

The trip towards the Medical Floor was filled with silence, but that wasn’t much of a surprise with dealing with Bucky nowadays. Not being able to help it, Steve wondered if the one in his arms was also silent and standoffish. If he was like the Bucky he had known before the war – and he surely looked like it – he wasn’t, he’d be quite the contrary, actually, and Steve’s heart throbbed a bit at the thought. Hydra had taken that from his Bucky, and Steve would never stop feeling horrible about it.

Someone had called there already, Steve guessed, because as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, three doctors rushed to take Bucky into a hospital bed to hook him up to some IVs. Steve turned to Bucky and bit his lip. “Do you want to stay?” he asked.

It took the other man a couple of minutes, but eventually, he nodded. “I want answers,” he said with a stern voice. Bucky’s voice was always stern these days.

“Yeah, you and me both, pal,” Steve answered, sighing. “Do you have any guesses?”

Bucky lowered his head, making his hair fall into his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t understand how would Hydra do something like this.”

Steve nodded in agreement. “Or why,” he added, sighing.

“If that’s Hydra behind it, they are trying to get to you,” Bucky answered, still not looking at him but without hesitating. “It is what you want, right? Him.”

Steve was at a loss of words. Thankfully, before the silence stretched for too long, the man in the bed startled awake. Steve needed to find a different name to call the two Buckys, it was too much to think of both of them as Bucky.

In reality, only one of them was Bucky. What Hydra had done to him had been enough to get rid of every trace of Bucky once, and he was slowly getting them back, but he had told Steve repeatedly that he wasn’t the Bucky he had known from before, and that he doubted he’d ever be again. Actually, Steve was the only one that called him Bucky, he had asked everyone else to call him James. Steve had guessed a long time ago that the only reason why he let him, was because he didn’t want to upset Steve. It was only logical.

He saw all the medics walk towards the bed and he looked at James. “Looks like we don’t have to wait much,” he told him with a little smile.

“Steve. Steve!” Bucky said, from the bed. It was almost a wail and Steve’s heart clenched tightly. It sounded horribly like what Steve imagined he had sounded back when he had been imprisoned in Azzano.

Steve rushed towards him. “I’m here Buck, they’re just checking that everything is alright. You’re okay. I’m here.”

Bucky’s frantic eyes settled on him and Steve smiled in encouragement – or at least tried to – and the man grabbed his arm tightly.

After almost half an hour in which Bucky never dropped his arm and James never left the room, the doctors finally calmed enough to leave the bedside. There was nothing wrong with Bucky, at least, nothing that showed in the few tests they had done. The next step was interrogation, and James seemed to agree with him, because he stepped next to Steve and looked strictly at his own face.

“How did you get here?” he asked.

Only when Bucky answered did Steve realize how different the tone of their voices was. “I’m not entirely sure.” It was obviously the same voice, but James’ was gruffier, sterner, and Bucky’s was… it was almost innocent. It was the voice of a man who hadn’t seen all the horrors James and Steve had.

Steve was going to intervene, but he was interrupted before he could even open his mouth. “How can you not know?” Steve looked at James and saw he was narrowing his eyes at Bucky.

Bucky’s eyes also narrowed, looking at his bearded face. It was weird how the same face gesture could look so different in what was the same face.

“Are you from Hydra?” Steve said straightforwardly.

The reaction he got was from pure shock. From James, it was just a slight change in his eyes. From Bucky, it was a slack mouth, big eyes and even a bit of added paleness. “No!” he answered when he regained his speech. “Of course not! Why would I be a part of those… Nazi dicks!”

Steve and James shared a look. “You have to understand our… suspicions,” Steve said softly.

Bucky’s eyes fixed on Steve’s own and he could almost physically see the hesitation in them. “No. Of course I don’t understand your suspicions,” he said, dragging his eyes towards James for a couple of seconds before turning back to him.

“There is a history of you, of James Barnes, having ties with Hydra,” Steve offered slowly, looking at James, who was fixedly looking at Bucky.

“What the fuck! No! I’d never be involved with them,” Bucky said seriously. He looked at James. “I’d never be.”

Steve could clearly see James’ shoulders getting tighter, so he carefully put a hand on them. “Do you know what the Winter Soldier is?” Bucky frowned and slowly shook his head. “The Winter Soldier is an assassin that Hydra used on their most important hits for over seventy years. So good that he became a legend. People doubted about his existence for seventy years until he and Captain America fought in Washington D.C. His identity was revealed in that fight. It was James Buchanan Barnes,” Steve recited.

Bucky looked at him with wide eyes, as if he had gone crazy. “What the heck are you talking about, Steve,” he demanded, and it was not really a question. But then, he turned to James and recoiled as far as the bed and the cuffs around his wrists allowed to. “What is this. Where am I.”

James pursed his lips. “We should call Thor. See if he knows something about all this,” he told Steve. With that, he turned and left the room.

Steve looked at Bucky, who hadn’t moved. “I’ll come back later. Hopefully we’ll know what all this is about,” he said, offering a small smile before following James.

“Hey, James!” he said, when he saw the elevator’s doors closing. A metal hand gripped the metal door and it stopped its motion, opening again instead. Steve walked inside and turned to him. “What do you think?”

“That you have a soft spot,” James answered, his eyes roaming Steve’s face. “I think you’d believe anything he told you if it was a story you wanted to hear.”

With complete honesty, that hurt Steve. He was not dumb, he had been intelligent when he had been skinny, and the serum had made him even smarter. He knew when something was a threat and the terrorized man in the Medical Floor didn’t look like one. Still, Steve had proceeded with caution and would still until he was proved otherwise.

And still, he could not deny James Barnes being his soft spot.

“Good thing you’re there to judge it too, right?” he said.

James frowned. “You want me there?” he asked, in what Steve had become to know as his tone of incredulity.

“Of course. Considering the situation, you should be aware of everything that is happening. It’s a personal matter.”

Even if he didn’t add anything else, Steve knew that what was surprising James was the trust Steve put in him. He was surprised every time someone in the Avengers trusted him, actually. It didn’t matter with what. He didn’t think he deserved it, it seemed. Or maybe he was scared that it was all a test – he had told Steve about the consequences of failing the test his Hydra handlers had made him go through – and that he would be punished or kicked out. Giving him more trust was almost exhilarating for Steve. He did really trust James, after all.

Still, instead of speaking, James just nodded tightly. “We should keep interrogating him when Thor gets here,” he suggested, and Steve nodded. “It doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t know about the Winter Soldier.”

Steve nodded, looking at the floor and feeling the familiar burn behind his eyes he always felt when he thought about his friend’s time at Hydra. “It doesn’t. We can only hope we get an answer when Thor gets here.”

“That, or we could have Banner make a serum of truth,” James answered dryly.

Steve’s loud laugh came out of him as if it had been a punch. That was another difference between pre-war Bucky and James. The first one had always had a boyish sense of humor, and had the basics about sarcasm covered, but it was nothing like James’ dark and dry humor. Steve appreciated the change, though, his own taste having changed after everything that had happened in his life.

“I’ll call Thor,” Steve said, “maybe you should try catch up some sleep. These will be some hectic days.”

And they were.

Thor had been in one of his own missions in outer space and had told them he’d go as soon as it was possible. That was three days after the call, and he had come as soon as possible, still dirty with the grime of the battle. “Take a shower and sleep for a bit if you need to, Thor, this can wait until you rest,” Steve told the eager god.

Just by the feeling of his stare at the back of Steve’s neck, he knew James didn’t agree. He could understand it up to some level, having someone who looked exactly like you and that swore to be you but without the whole baggage of being a brainwashed assassin had to be brain racking. Still, Thor needed to rest, it was obvious. Steve wasn’t going to let a member of his team put this kind of strain on himself – seeing Thor like that reminded Steve to go down to Tony’s workshop and pester him to eat and sleep. Thankfully, Thor seemed to understand, and just nodded and headed towards his bedroom. They didn’t see him until the next afternoon, when he strolled into the kitchen wearing sweats and ruffling his hair.

“So tell me, Steven, what is the reason of your call?” he asked, glancing at James, who was shadowing Steve. He hadn’t told him the problem because he didn’t want to distract him of whatever problem he had to fix, and now he didn’t exactly know where to start.

“There’s a copy of Bucky upstairs,” he said slowly, looking at his friend, who nodded once. “We’re not sure how he got here or where does he come from. We’re suspecting Hydra, but we don’t know how could that be possible.”

“There are no signs of facial surgery and his voice sounds the same,” James added.

Thor looked at them for at least ten seconds before nodding. “I can’t assure you I’ll know how to answer your questions, but I’ll try if you take me to him.”

Steve nodded and walked towards the elevator, both James and Thor following. When they got to the Medical Floor, Thor took the lead, walking two steps ahead of them towards the bed where Bucky was resting with his eyes closed.

Steve turned to James, who had stayed back with him, and pursed his lips. “How are you doing?” he asked gently.

“I’m fine,” was James’ answer.

“You know you can talk with me, right, James? I can understand how weird this must feel like.” Steve tried not to press matter that James didn’t want to talk about, but he wanted to know if his friend was at the blink of having a meltdown. He wanted to be there for him, as he had been in the past.

The only answer he got was a jerky nod before James started walking towards Thor and Bucky. Without any kind of gentleness, James woke up Bucky, who looked up startled and, as he had been doing for the whole time he had been there, he tried to get as far from Bucky as he could.

As Steve neared, he could see Thor reaching out to touch Bucky’s forehead, before the other man pulled back aggressively. “Behave,” James said. In his head, Steve couldn’t help but realize how close his tone was to Winifred Barnes when she got angry at her boys. The pang of melancholy made him want to go back to his room and hide in a blanket burrito forever. Instead, he chose the more adult option: ignore it.

The second time, Thor reached for him, Bucky stayed still, but he was sending daggers towards the blond god. Bucky sending daggers was pretty different to James sending daggers, more… innocuous. The touch only lasted twenty seconds, but by Thor’s smile, it was enough for him to know what was going on.

“This is James Barnes,” he said, to which James stiffened. Steve put an arm in his shoulder, trying to comfort it, and took it as a win when he wasn’t shaken off. “He is not Hydra, he’s from another universe,” the blond continued, apparently ignorant to the distress he was causing, “although I’m not sure how he got here.”

“I was in Stark’s workshop when it happened,” Bucky offered, looking slightly green. “One of his machines started to make weird sounds and Steve and I were getting everyone out when it exploded. There was a white light and then I was here.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Steve asked with a frown.

“I wasn’t sure how you would react,” was the answer he got, and to add some effect, Bucky held his head high.

“You are safe here,” Steve repeated softly. Bucky’s eyebrows shot up and then he looked pointedly at the cuffs in his wrists. “That was just in case. You have to understand that we cannot trust anybody we don’t know. Even less if they look like one of us.”

“Another universe?” James asked, looking at Thor with a deep frown. Thor nodded. “How can… Are there…” he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Is this not the only reality?”

“Not at all, my friend,” Thor answered, he looked like he wanted to clap James on the back, as he would have with the rest of them, but then he seemed to remember that James didn’t always react good to touch. “There are multiple universes with multiple realities. If I’m not wrong, in one of them, all this is considered fiction, no powers, no enhanced humans. Just actors.”

James looked like he was going to be sick, and Steve wasn’t really that far off. “And… he comes from one of those universes.” Thor nodded. “We have to get him back.”

Again, Thor nodded. “There could be great damage if we don’t get him back to his universe soon.”

“Then we need to talk with Tony,” Steve said. He turned to look at Bucky, who was frowning. “You said it was one of his machines what brought you here, right? Maybe he can build something to get you back.”

“I don’t know if it was one of his or if it was something he found at Hydra. Could be both,” Bucky mumbled.

“Either way we should talk to him. If he didn’t create that machine in your universe, he will want to in this one,” Steve couldn’t help but smile at him, and Bucky smiled back.

Steve heard the elevator’s doors closing and when he looked up, he saw James had left. Now that they knew Hydra wasn’t involved in this, James probably thought it was safe enough to leave Steve’s side.

He stayed up there, listening to Bucky talking about his universe until it was time for dinner. Apparently, he hadn’t been born in 1917, as James had. He had been born in 1984, he had spent years at the army and had met his Steve Rogers – who had a similar story to Steve’s own – just a couple of days before joining him at a mission and then never really leaving. He had fought against Hydra with Steve but had never been captured by them. He had both arms, both made of flesh. And his eyes weren’t filled with sadness. Not the way James’ were, at least.

He sat next to Clint, as usual, but it didn’t go unnoticed how James wasn’t there. He didn’t make an appearance until they were all finished, and the others had cleaned up the table. James walked into the kitchen slowly, everything in his stance made it obvious that he didn’t want to be approached. Steve didn’t care. He stood up and James looked at him expectantly.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, trying to keep his voice gentle.

“I’m fine.”

“James,” Steve said, more seriously. “Please, tell me.”

“Steve,” James said, imitating his tone. Then he offered a small smile. “Really, it’s fine.”

Steve looked at him and gave him a small smile of his own. He looked a bit distressed but, of course, in his situation, it was the least that could happen. Maybe he wasn’t feeling as bad as Steve thought if he was still smiling. It has been long since Steve had seen a smile in James’ face and seeing it now was enough to loosen his chest a little.

“Just a bit overwhelming, huh?” he mumbled.

James nodded. “And weird,” he added. “It’s like looking at a mirror, but not really.”

“Like you’re the same person but different,” Steve followed James with his eyes as he started rummaging through the cabinets.

James huffed, giving Steve his back. “Yeah, too different.”

When Steve told Tony about Bucky’s situation and his possible implication, Tony had rushed to interrogate Bucky all about his alternate universe self’s gadgets. Steve doubted there was something he could tell Tony much about something as complex as Stark’s machinery.

Just in a few days, Bucky managed to basically befriend every Avenger. Everyone wanted to know more about their alternative selves, but it wasn’t just that. He was as friendly and easy going as he had been before the war. Well, he was as friendly and easy going as his Bucky had been before the war, the alternate Bucky had never gone through that.

Almost a week had passed and, on Sunday, as usual, Steve and Bucky got together in Steve’s living room and watched one of the films they both had missed. “I picked Kill Bill for this time,” Steve told his friend, searching for the film. “Bucky says you’ll like it.”

If Steve had been paying more attention, he would have seen James balling up his fists and gritting his teeth. But he had his whole attention fixed in the screen.

“I also asked Clint and he only had to add that katanas are cool. I’m guessing there’s some katana action in the film,” he shrugged, turning his head to James. “We’ll see.”

James didn’t answer, so Steve just pressed play and laid his head against the back of the sofa. Steve was interested in the film, he really was, but he was also exhausted after spending so much time with Bucky and Tony, trying to find a way to send Bucky back home, that he ended up falling asleep.

He woke up later, his head against Bucky’s shoulder instead of the back of the sofa. He groaned at his stiff neck and squinted at the screen, noticing that the film had finished. He turned to James, who was diligently not looking at him.

“Mmh, sorry about that, Buck,” he mumbled, pulling away. Only when he was already away he realized what he had called him. He chastised himself in his mind but tried not to show it in his face.

“It’s okay,” James answered shortly.

He looked at his phone and saw that more than two hours had passed, that startled Steve enough that he woke completely. “James!” he exclaimed. “Look at the time, you should have woken me up!”

“It’s okay, I know you’re tired,” James mumbled as an answer.

Steve frowned. “I am, but it must have been so uncomfortable for you…” he looked down. “You should have just, I don’t know, pushed me down the sofa or something.”

James frowned at him. “I said it was okay, Steve,” he said. “You used to do this all the time. I’m not going to combust just because you fall asleep on me once in a while.” Then he stood up and left abruptly.

He was left alone, staring dumbly at the door.

He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but James wasn’t exactly a stranger to mood swings, so he frowned but didn’t think much of it. He just changed his clothes and fell face first on the bed.

He didn’t think much about that the next day either, James was acting as he always did these days, so instead of dwelling on it, he busied himself doing whatever he could to help Tony – although he couldn’t do much more than just listen to his rumbles.

It was a few days after that, Clint and Sam were sitting next to him, the three of them looking at Bucky as he told them funny stories about the crazy villains their alternate selves had fought. By the corner of his eye he saw James sneaking into the kitchen.

“I’m going to go get a glass of water, do you guys want something?” Steve asked as he was raising.

“A coke,” Sam called.

When Steve walked into the kitchen, James was giving his back to the door. For a moment, he let himself bask in the feeling of pride. A year ago, James would have never let anyone get near with his back so exposed, not even Steve. He still had some bad days, but so far, he had let Steve in completely, he had trusted him enough to be vulnerable around him.

“Hey,” he said, propping his hip against the counter.

James glanced at him from the sandwich he was making. “Hi,” he answered.

“Do you want to come to hear about the stories of the alternate universe?” he suggested, pointing vaguely at the direction of the sitting area where the others were sitting.

“No.”

Steve looked up in surprise at the sharpness of James’ answer. He was still giving him his back, and he had his eyes focused into the sandwich, but he had stopped making it. “What’s wrong?” he asked confused.

He didn’t get an answer, instead, James just left the kitchen in a rush, leaving the sandwich behind. Steve stared at the emptied space for a minute before narrowing his eyes and getting out of the kitchen too. As he passed next to the sitting area, he heard Sam “hey man, where is my coke!” he called as he rushed towards the elevators. Steve didn’t pay him any attention.

Steve didn’t find James in his room, actually, Steve didn’t find James anywhere in the whole compound. He tried asking FRIDAY to find him, but the only answer he got was _that Sergeant Barnes didn’t want to be found_.

When he got back to the kitchen, the sandwich was gone, and that detail only made him grumble louder.

“Have you seen Barnes?” he asked the guys. Both Clint and Sam slowly turned towards Bucky, who was frowning. Steve huffed. “No. My Barnes.”

The only answer that they got was that the last time they had seen him had been when he had run off from the kitchen before Steve. Very helpful friends, indeed.

Tony found him soon after, dragging him to his workshop. “Alternate me is smart. So smart. Not that I am not smart. We are both smart. We are the same person after all, right?” Tony rambled, as he got deeper into the messy room. “But why would he, or me, or whatever pronoun I should use, let’s do he. He. Why would he create something to move from universe to universe?” Tony said, still rambling. “How would he even know about alternate universes? We didn’t know until Thor told us, right? And it only happened because Second-Barnes appeared. I can’t see an alternate-them appearing in their universe so alternate-Thor told them. It’s too complicated.”

“Definitely too complicated,” Steve said, his head already hurting. “What’s your point, exactly?”

“We need to call Shuri,” Tony commented, looking at Steve just for a second. “I don’t know where to start. And that girl is smart. Too smart. Smarter than me even, and I don’t say that lightly.”

“Tony,” he said sternly.

“I’m hoping she’ll know where to start,” the shorter man said, gesturing wildly with his hands. “And if she doesn’t, at least I’ll get the opportunity to play with her in my workshop.” Steve rolled his eyes at that, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Tony, actually, it seemed to encourage him. “And if we can’t find a way to send them back, you’ll get two Barnes to make puppy eyes to.”

“I don’t…! Tony!” Steve whined. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks. “I don’t make puppy eyes.”

Tony snorted, not looking up from a tablet in his hands. “You sure do. Constantly. I bet you five hundred dollars that you’re making puppy eyes at me right now.”

Steve took care to harden his face, but Tony didn’t look up.

“I’ll call T’Challa,” Steve sighed.

“No need. I already e-mailed Shuri,” Tony said. “She said she’ll talk with T’Challa and get back to me, but she’s totally going to say yes. I would if I was in her place. Tinkering with alternate universe portals is not something you just pass.”

“Yeah. Sure. You’d be crazy to pass _that_ ,” Steve said rolling his eyes.

They spent the rest of the day in the workshop. Steve had never spent so much time at Tony’s lands as he had been doing, and he wasn’t really useful, but apparently, he liked being there to listen at Tony’s rambles and to see him manipulate his gadgets. It was calmly after the mess that was going on in the rest of the tower. After that weird encounter with James, he didn’t want to face either of the Buckys.

The next few days weren’t much of a problem, James was hiding and the time he spent with Bucky was usually in silence or listening to Tony while they waited for Shuri.

When the girl arrived, three days after Tony’s e-mail. The first person she went for was James, “white wolf,” she said solemnly, giving him a half hug. Then, she seemed to realize there were two of them and she frowned just for a second before smiling widely. “Alternate universes, huh?”

“Shuri,” James said, nodding and stepping away from her personal space. “Good to know you’ve been informed. You think you can fix this?”

“I could fix you,” she answered.

She was right, but in Steve’s opinion, getting trigger words out of someone’s mind and building a device to travel through different universes were different things. Completely different things. But it was also obvious that Shuri was the smartest person he knew. Stark had said it already, she was smarter than him, and if Anthony Stark admitted that someone was smarter than him, they were really smart.

“Well, I can look into it,” she smiled at him again. “Let’s go, Stark, we have no time to loose, there’s a Barnes wanting to get home.” She gave Bucky a sign of finger guns before walking away following stark.

“Who… Who is that?” Bucky asked, frowning.

“She’s the princess of Wakanda,” Steve answered.

“Smartest kid on Earth,” James added, following her with his gaze before turning to Bucky. “Don’t go looking for her if you don’t know her already. When you get back.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes before nodding. “I guess I’ll meet her eventually. If our universes have any kind of correlation,” he answered.

James looked at him for a few seconds before walking back to the facility. Steve rolled his eyes before rushing towards him. “You’re escaping,” Steve told him with raised eyebrows.

“I’m not.”

“Real mature,” Steve deadpanned. He only got a blank stare back. “C’mon, tell me what’s going on.”

“There is nothing going on,” James insisted, starting to walk faster.

If they kept going on with that, they would end up sprinting. “James. Slow down. Talk to me,” Steve’s tone was almost a plead. “Please, James.”

“Stop with that already!” James exclaimed raising his voice just a little bit. It wasn’t a shout, and it was definitely not enough for the other to hear them, not when they were already so far away, but Steve still felt like he had been slapped.

“With what? I can’t drop a subject I don’t know it’s bothering you,” Steve said, grabbing James’ arm.

James didn’t answer, he just pulled his arm back and walked inside the facility. “Why won’t you talk to me?” Steve asked, following him inside.

“Because it’s obvious it’s not me who you want to talk with,” James spitted out, leaving Steve without words. Before he could say anything, James kept going. “Look, Steve, I get it, just… I don’t know, ignore me, or whatever, until he leaves. If you find a way of making him leave.”

“Buck…”

“And now you call me that” he nodded.

Steve frowned. From the corner of his eye he could see the others nearing the entrance of the facility and grabbed James’ arm again, pulling him towards the elevator. “I want to talk about this,” he said, looking into his friend’s eyes.

James pulled his arm back again, but didn’t try to get out of the elevator, and when they got to Steve’s living quarters, he didn’t immediately bolt, which he had to take as a good sign. “Tell me.”

James rolled his eyes, “what do you want me to tell you exactly?” he asked.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Steve pressed.

They stayed in silence for a minute but then James sighed and sat in the sofa. “I know you miss that. I know you want it back.” He was speaking too softly and looking at the floor.

“You think I… prefer him?” Steve asked, frowning.

“I know I’m not what I used to be. And now he’s here. You’re remembering what you already missed and now you want him back.”

“What? That’s not the truth,” Steve said. “And stop talking about past you as if it was another person. You’re still my friend, I still… You have changed, you’ve said it a hundred times, but that doesn’t mean I prefer him.”

“You call him Bucky,” he said, although it was more like a whisper.

Steve frowned. “Uh… What?”

James raised his head and pinned Steve with his clear eyes. He felt breathing was difficult, and he wondered for a moment if that was enough to override the serum against an asthma attack.

“I thought… You said you weren’t Bucky anymore. Everyone else calls you James… Does it… Bother you?” Steve was hesitant.

“Of course it bothers me, Steve!” James – or Bucky or however he should call him – said, standing up. “You keep calling me Bucky until a guy with shiny teeth and a good mental health comes along, then _he_ is Bucky!? What the hell, Steve.”

“Everyone calls you James! And I needed to differentiate the both of you!” Steve tried to reason.

“Everyone but you! You calling me Bucky is like…” he hesitated, shaking his head and letting himself fall on the couch again. “It was like validation.”

“Validation of what?” Steve wondered gently.

“That I still have a place in your life? I don’t know Steve.”

He sighed. “Look, Buck, you are always going to have a place in my life. Always. It doesn’t matter if you’re Bucky or James or whatever other identity you can be. It doesn’t matter because I will always want you there, I’ve always wanted you there. And I mean you, Buck, not a copy of you with shiny teeth and mental stability.” Bucky snorted, and Steve smiled. “I’m not…” Steve sighed. “He might be like how you were before, but I haven’t spent half of my life with him. And honestly, I don’t really want to spend more than the week I’ve already spent with him. He’s too smiley. I was starting to miss the scowl.”

“Sure,” Bucky said.

“It’s true. You are at least three times better,” Steve smirked, sitting down next to him.

“He has two flesh arms,” Bucky counterattacked.

“Yeah but metal is better. Yours stops bullets. Imagine what would happen if he tried to stop bullets with his fleshy hands” he joked.

James gave him a small laugh, which made Steve smile.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said when he stopped laughing.

“It’s fine.”

“No, I… I guess I got jealous. I’m sorry.”

Before he could control himself, Steve lunged himself towards him and pressed their lips together. It didn’t last long, Steve regained his common sense before Bucky could kiss him back. He pulled away, already panicking.

“I’m not… I…” he stammered.

“Steve…”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he said frantically.

He got up of the sofa and walked a couple of steps back. He looked at the door but then it came to him that he couldn’t just leave, if he did, the problem would just get bigger and bigger. It had already happened with the James/Bucky matter.

He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

Bucky looked at him from the sofa and slowly got up. He walked towards him with long, slow steps, as if he were approaching a beast.

“Why did you do that?” Bucky asked, fixing his eyes on Steve’s.

He hesitated but ended up shrugging. “Guess cat’s out of the bag now,” he mumbled.

“No. Be explicit. Why did you do that?” Bucky pressed.

Steve looked away. “What do you want me to say, Buck? That I’m sweet on you? That I’ve been for years? Well, there you have it. I like you. More than that. I love you, as a friend and as something more and if you want to be disgusted at me then just say it now so we can both get on with our lives.”

But his friend actually laughed and nodded once, twice and three times. Then, he laughed again. They were the most real laughs Steve had heard coming from Bucky in a long, long time. “Good to know, Stevie,” he mumbled, before launching himself towards the blond.

Steve’s back hit the wall behind him, and for a moment he was waiting a punch, or a kick. Instead, he got a pair of lips pressed against his own. Bucky had one hand behind his neck and the other one around his hip, and even if Steve didn’t understand, he surely didn’t pull away either.

“That’s good to know because I’ve been sweet on you too, pal, for longer than you, I bet.”

They spent their evening in Steve’s living quarters, missing dinner and sharing kisses and a lot of teasing. When they reunited their colleagues at breakfast, they didn’t act very differently, but the few times that Steve felt Bucky brush any part of his body against him, as soft as the touch was, sent Steve’s heart racing.

Second-Bucky – as Steve had decided to call him, copying Tony’s nickname – stayed with them for another week before Stark and Shuri could build a device to send him home. Before he left, he spoke with Steve.

“You should make a move,” he told the blond. “My Steve and I… Well, our relationship is more than friendly. I’ve seen the way you look at each other, that hasn’t changed.”

Steve hadn’t been able to hide the smirk. “That’s covered up,” he had answered.

After Second-Bucky had been sent back, Steve and Bucky shared another evening shut in their rooms, talking in soft voices.

“So alternate-me didn’t realize?” Bucky asked, his tone filled with incredulity. “I’m shit at the whole know yourself bullshit then.”

“If alternate-you didn’t notice, how long do you think it’ll take the team?” Steve asked with a small smirk that Bucky soon replicated.

The answer was three months.


End file.
